We are delighted to welcome author Samuel Marquis to Omnimystery News today.
Samuel's new stand-alone political thriller is The Coalition (Mount Sopris Publishing; January 2016 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the opportunity to talk with him about his work.
— ♦ —
Omnimystery News: Tell us a little bit about your books.
Photo provided courtesy of
Samuel Marquis
Samuel Marquis: To keep myself fresh and multi-dimensional, I have three independent series with two books in each series coming out in 2015-2017. The first is an international espionage series featuring Nick Lassiter, a young American who as the series progresses transforms from a Mr. Everyman struggling-writer, to a bestselling author and reluctant CIA intelligence asset. The first book in this series was The Slush Pile Brigade that came out in September 2015. My second series features hydrogeologist and environmental sleuth Joe Higheagle, a Cheyenne Indian and environmental crime solver living in Colorado. The first book in this series came out in October 2015. Rounding out the lineup are my stand-alone modern and historical suspense novels with new characters introduced in each novel. Within this group, I have a World War II Trilogy featuring different settings and characters, but all dealing with espionage during WWII. All of my books are in the suspense genre, but like Dennis Lehane and Ken Follett, I like to have the creative freedom to explore different time periods and not be restricted to a single series or protagonist.
My protagonists are Mr. Everyman type of crime solvers that do extraordinary things, but in a believable manner. They are somewhat autobiographical, at least in their professions and hobbies. I am a professional hydrogeologist and groundwater expert witness in the environmental industry, and I am an avid lacrosse player, downhill skier, and armchair historian so I often work these themes into my books. Nick Lassiter is an unemployed geologist and writer who becomes a Jason Bourne-type operative, but with a sense of humor and tendency towards iconoclasm. Joe Higheagle is a professional hydrogeologist like me, but he is a full-blooded Cheyenne Indian who lives with his grandfather and Yoda-like crime-solving partner, Chief John Higheagle. My protagonist in The Coalition, my standalone political assassination thriller, is FBI agent Ken Patton, a history buff, lead miniature collector and painter, and the great-grandson of legendary, controversial, cigar-chomping World War II tank commander General George S. Patton.
OMN: When starting a new book, how do you decide whether it will be part of a series or a stand-alone?
SM: I write because I love to tell stories, whether in the present day or historically based. I develop the plots and decide whether it is a series up front, and from there, I complete an approximately 50-page outline that describes the stakes, characters, and conflict in each chapter. My series characters (Nick Lassiter international espionage series and Joe Higheagle environmental sleuth series), and my characters in my World War II Trilogy and standalone suspense novels, are developed in the detailed outlining process.
OMN: Describe your writing process for us.
SM: For all of my suspense novels, the outline I mentioned covers every chapter as well as a two- to three- page biography of each of my major point-of-view (POV) characters. The number of POV characters varies from book to book, but I always have between three and six. My protagonists are the principal character is about half the scenes, with each of the other major POV characters involved in around 25% of the scenes.
Once I develop my 50-page outline, I don't stick to it 100%. The outline provides a detailed synopsis and framework for the novel, but I end up deviating from the prepared script by about a third. That is to say, only two-thirds of my outline comprises the final product, because I add scenes, expand characters' roles, and remove scenes to speed up the pacing and make the books more exciting. Thus, my outline and character biographies provide the skeletal framework, but I make creative deviations along the way. Writing a suspense novel is a journey, and though I have a starting point, middle, and end, I take a lot of side trips to explore and elucidate interesting things along the way.
OMN: How true are you to the settings of your books?
SM: Most of my books are set in Colorado, or at least partly in Colorado, and involve Colorado characters. The Colorado settings include the Rocky Mountains, the Front Range, the Great Plains, the metropolises of Denver, Colorado Springs, and Boulder, and smaller towns in the mountains and plains. I was born and raised in Colorado. Internationally, the state has come to symbolize a healthy, outdoor lifestyle and unparalleled physiographic beauty with the mountains and high plains. In addition, Colorado is noted for its colorful frontier history, featuring the Plains Indians and mountain tribes and the wild, lawless West. My characters reflect these Colorado attributes.
OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, to research the setting for a book, where would it be?
SM: I was in France and England over Christmas for final research on my WWII suspense novel, Bodyguard of Deception (Book One of the WWII Trilogy), and for my Nick Lassiter international espionage series, for which I have two finished books coming in 2016-2017. So I am already going to Europe. But to have all expenses paid, additional research would be helpful in Germany, Poland, Austria, and Italy. The main reason is my Nick Lassiter international espionage series and the books in my World War II Trilogy take place in these countries, and there are always new locations I could visit for future books.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And how often do they find their way into your books?
SM: My hobbies include playing competitive lacrosse (I played in the U.S. Lacrosse World Games in 2014 and play every Sunday in my Boulder men's League), downhill skiing, hiking, whitewater rafting, and, last but not least, voracious reading. The subjects that interest me are the Golden Age of Piracy, the Plains Indian Wars, World War II, espionage, and the modern War on Terror. All of these topics find their way in my books, or in my planned books in the case of the pirates (my ancestor was the infamous pirate Captain Kidd). For example, my Cheyenne hero from my second novel, Blind Thrust (Joe Higheagle environmental sleuth series), is a professional lacrosse player for the Denver Outlaws, and my protagonist Nick Lassiter in The Slush Pile Brigade (Book 1 of Nick Lassiter international espionage series) played college lacrosse at Kenyon College. I have a wild whitewater rafting and gun battle scene through Royal Gorge in my WWII espionage thriller, Bodyguard of Deception, where my German antagonists are escaping the FBI, police, and local mountain men. It is based on my rafting the Class 5 rapids of the Arkansas River — which I barely survived!
OMN: How did The Coalition come to be titled?
SM: In choosing the title for The Coalition, I wanted a name that was somewhat shadowy and vague since the domestic right-wing group in the book is a secret society. This clandestine group consists of prestigious, extremely wealthy, and influential American religious, political, military, and business leaders that "eliminate" those they want removed from power and install their own handpicked successors as replacements. They are ruthlessly efficient, and I wanted to convey an air of menace with the name of the secret society.
OMN: Have any particular authors or titles influenced how and what you write today?
SM: I read a lot of non-fiction history and suspense, with a smattering of literary fiction thrown in for good measure, and I have learned a trick or two from all of the great authors I enjoy. In terms of literature and literary fiction, I am a great admirer of Hawthorne, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Larry McMurtry, E.L. Doctorow, Michael Shaara, and Charles Frazier. For non-fiction my roster of greats includes Robert Utley, Stephen Ambrose, Shelby Foote, Ben Macintyre, Rick Atkinson, Marcus Rediker, S.C. Gwynne, Kevin Duffus, and Hampton Sides. My favorite commercial fiction writers are Frederick Forsyth, Gore Vidal, James Clavell, Dennis Lehane, Daniel Silva, Preston and Child, Ken Follett, Stephen Hunter, Richard North Patterson, Michael Crichton, Kyle Mills, and early Grisham. I tend to gravitate towards authors who tell stories in the same way I do and to subject matter dealing with my areas of research interest in the Golden Age of Piracy, the Plains Indian Wars, World War II, the War on Terror, and modern science with a geological, biological, or paleontological component.
My settings, characters, and events portrayed in my novels consistently incorporate the above subject matters, and hence the above authors, in various ways. The bottom line is that I've always loved history, especially the underdogs and iconoclasts of American history. Because of my passionate interest in the specific historical subjects listed above, I am always working them into my books. In Blind Thrust, my hero, Joe Higheagle, and his grandfather, Chief John Higheagle, are both Northern Cheyenne Indians because I am a Plains Indian War aficionado. This stems largely from my legendary writer-ancestors who have served as two of my influences: Dr. Thomas B. Marquis, who chronicled the Cheyenne Indians, Custer, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn; and Marquis James, a two-time Pulitzer-prize-winning Western author.
OMN: For entertainment, what kinds of films do you enjoy watching?
SM: I have always loved both big-budget Hollywood and more indie-type domestic and foreign films, and I am always thinking of my books in terms of film. My favorite films are epic historical films, often having to do with the West, WWII, or suspense. Examples include: Lawrence of Arabia, Dances With Wolves, The English Patient, Patton, The Great Escape, The Dirty Dozen, Inglorious Basterds, The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 3:10 To Yuma, Jeremiah Johnson, Saving Private Ryan, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Bonnie and Clyde, Braveheart, Spartacus, Gladiator, The Hunt for Red October, and the Jurassic Park, Bond, and Bourne series. Individually, these movies didn't inspire my books per se, but collectively they represent all of the subjects that I am deeply interested in.
OMN: What's next for you?
SM: I have/am publishing six professionally edited, previously agented novels in 2015-2016. Why so many? Because I happen to have a backlog of seven very good novels since I have been at this for a few years and have had two New York literary agents. But the main reason I am doing it is because my father died last spring and my new motto is "I Ain't Wasting Time No More," in honor of the legendary Allman Brothers' song. In keeping with Greg Allman's resolute mantra, I'm not going to wait around for the supposed industry gatekeepers to get their act together and realize that I have something important to say.
So here's what I've done and got coming in 2015-2017, in chronological order:
1. The Slush Pile Brigade — Book #1 of the Nick Lassiter Series (September 2015).
2. Blind Thrust — Book #1 of the Joe Higheagle Series (October 2015).
3. The Coalition — Standalone Political Assassination Thriller (January 2016).
4. Bodyguard of Deception — Book #1 of the World War Two Trilogy (March 2016).
5. The Fourth Pularchek — Book #2 of the Nick Lassiter Series (June 2016).
6. The Cluster — Book #2 of the Joe Higheagle Series (September 2016).
7. Roman Moon — Book #2 of the World War Two Trilogy (Winter 2017).
— ♦ —
Samuel Marquis is by day a VP-Hydrogeologist with an environmental consulting firm in Boulder, CO, and by night as an iconoclastic spinner of historical and modern suspense yarns. He holds an M.S. degree in Geology, is a Registered Professional Geologist in eleven states, and is a recognized expert in groundwater contaminant hydrology, having served as an expert witness in several class action cases. He also has an abiding interest in military history and intelligence, specifically related to the Golden Age of Piracy, Plains Indian Wars, World War II, and current War on Terror. His strong scientific background and passion for military history and intelligence have served Marquis well as a suspense writer. In addition to his suspense novels, Marquis is the author of over 25 professional papers and book chapters on groundwater contaminant fate and transport and remediation.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at SamuelMarquisBooks.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
— ♦ —
The Coalition by Samuel Marquis
A Novel of Suspense
Publisher: Mount Sopris Publishing
From the fiftieth floor of an office building in Denver, Colorado, a longrange assassin calmly watches a procession of black Lincolns. When the motorcade pulls to the curb in Civic Center Plaza, a prominent leader steps from one of the vehicles and takes the stage to make an important speech. Moments later, a loud BOOM echoes through the Plaza and the man slumps to the platform like a stringless marionette. The mysterious sniper, whose very existence is unknown to the international law enforcement community, has just assassinated U.S. President-elect William Ambrose Kieger.
In the aftermath of the shocking political crime, the shooter escapes and a Task Force is swiftly assembled, headed up by Special Agent Kenneth Patton of the FBI's Denver Field Office. A ten-year vet in Domestic Terrorism, the unconventional Ken is driven to solve the crime by both professional and personal motives. His search leads him to a secret society whose diabolical and far-reaching plot threatens the very highest levels of the U.S. government. Yet the group's motives, secret membership, and ambitious plans remain elusive. Can Ken and his team uncover the plot in time to save the day? Can they beat the countdown on the clock and catch the assassin and the shadowy group in the background pulling the strings? Or will time run out?
— The Coalition by Samuel Marquis
